Ezekiel 1:14-16

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 1:14 tc The LXX omits v. 14 and may well be correct. The verse may be a later explanatory gloss of the end of v. 13 which was copied into the main text. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:46.tn Lit., “like the appearance of lightning.” The Hebrew term translated “lightning” occurs only here in the OT. In postbiblical Hebrew the term refers to a lightning flash.
2. Ezekiel 1:15 tc The MT includes “at the living beings,” which is absent from the LXX.
3. Ezekiel 1:15 sn Another vision that includes wheels on thrones occurs in Dan 7:9. Ezekiel 10 contains a vision similar to this one.
4. Ezekiel 1:15 tn The Hebrew word may be translated either “earth” or “ground” in this context.
5. Ezekiel 1:16 tc This word is omitted from the LXX.
6. Ezekiel 1:16 tn Heb “Tarshish stone.” The meaning of this term is uncertain. The term has also been translated “topaz” (NEB), “beryl” (KJV, NASB, NRSV), or “chrysolite” (RSV, NIV).
7. Ezekiel 1:16 tn Or “like a wheel at right angles to another wheel.” Some envision concentric wheels here, while others propose “a globe-like structure in which two wheels stand at right angles” (L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:33-34). The description given in v. 17 favors the latter idea.